PORT-AU-PRINCE: Rescuers pulled dazed survivors from the ruins of Haiti’s flattened capital as thousands of US troops headed in today to shore up the beleaguered international relief effort. Six days after the magnitude 7.0 quake, aid workers are still struggling to reach hundreds of thousands of homeless, injured and traumatized people desperate for food, water and medicine. Violence has erupted as survivors fight for whatever they can find, while all around the stench of burning bodies clings to the air as tens of thousands of rotting corpses are hurriedly disposed of. Officials fear the eventual death toll may top 200,000, and by yesterday some 70,000 had already been buried in mass graves. International aid is trickling in but supplies remain scarce amid the enormity of the crisis. US President Barack Obama has mobilised military reserves and another 7,500 troops were to join 5,800 US forces already on the scene or in ships off Haiti. “Time is still of the essence. We’re getting better, but there is still a lot of misery in Haiti,” said Rear Admiral Ted Branch, who commands the US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson strike group. UN chief Ban Ki-moon promised after visiting the disaster zone to speed up the aid effort. “I am here to say we are with you. You are not alone,” he said after flying over the ruined capital Port-au-Prince in a helicopter. But amidst the death and desperation were life-affirming tales of survival against all the odds. A text message to the United Nations set in motion a relief operation that led to the rescue two days later of Maria, Ariel and Lamy after being buried for more than 100 hours under a collapsed supermarket. “I’m seven,” Ariel shouted to rescuers seeking signs of life, adding that she was stuck next to a dead man but covered with supermarket food. “It was electric when we saw the fruit of our labor, when that little girl came out,” said Joseph Fernandez, of a Florida search and rescue team. Two Australian news crews dug by hand to rescue an 18-month-old baby lying alongside her dead parents. Survivors besieged hospitals and makeshift clinics, some carrying the injured on their backs or on carts. Hundreds of rioters ransacked Hyppolite market in the capital. Police armed with shotguns and assault rifles shot dead one rioter, an AFP photographer said.

Chavez slams US

CARACAS: Venezuela’s populist President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused the United States of using the tragedy of Haiti’s earthquake to launch a military occupation of the country. “Why send 3,000 armed soldiers unless it is for war?” said the leader who has often defined his rule by attacking leaders in Washington. “It appears they are militarily occupying Haiti, taking advantage of the tragedy,” he said during a weekly television address. His comments echo those of fellow leftist, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, who called on the US to withdraw from Haiti.